China has successfully rocketed three astronauts to space on
a mission set to include the nation's first spacewalk.
The Shenzhou 7 spacecraft launched around 9:10 a.m. ET (1310 GMT) aboard a 19-story Long March 2F rocket
from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China's Gansu province.
The mission marks China's third manned spaceflight, five
years after its initial 2003 liftoff. The nation is only the third country,
after the United States and Russia, to independently launch people into space.
"For those who are just tuning in, it is a statement
that China is a space power that needs to be reckoned with," Dean Cheng,
China analyst with Alexandria, Va.-based think tank CNA Corp. told SPACE.com
before launch.
Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng, all 42-year-old
Chinese fighter pilots, are China's first three-member
crew to journey to space.
"The successful launch marked the first victory of the Shenzhou-7 mission," Chinese president Hu Jintao said after launch, Xinhua reported. "On behalf of the Party Central Committee, the State Council and the Central Military Commission, I'd like to extend warm congratulations to all work staff and army forces participating in the mission."
The planned five-day mission is due land in Inner Mongolia
on Sept. 28.
First spacewalk
The mission is slated to include a 40-minute foray
into space for one of the three Chinese astronauts, or taikonauts. During
the activity, which could happen Friday or Saturday, state media reported, the
spacewalker is set to retrieve scientific experiments placed outside the
spacecraft and deploy a small satellite capable of sending images back to
Earth.
The spacewalk will be a test of China's technological
prowess, especially its newly built Feitan spacesuit, which reportedly cost 30
million yuan (about $4.4 million). The suit is designed to provide a
pressurized atmosphere, oxygen and temperature control, and communication
ability. It also protects astronauts from radiation, micrometeoroids and other
harmful particles in space.
China has
announced plans to broadcast the spacewalk live, in a gesture of confidence
and transparency.
The Chinese spacewalkers are due to be "supported by
Russian experts throughout the mission," the Associated Press quoted Wang
Zhaoyao, spokesperson for China's manned space program, as saying. "The
successful cooperation on the Shenzhou 7 manned mission will create favorable
conditions for future cooperation between our two countries."
The Shenzhou spacecraft itself is based on Russia's Soyuz
vehicle, but modernized by Chinese engineers. The Chinese
spacecraft includes an orbital module, a crew compartment, and a service
module that houses propulsion and other vital systems. Only the crew-carrying
section is designed to return to Earth intact.
Historic step
A successful spacewalk would be an important step toward
China's goals of building an orbiting space laboratory and possibly even landing
on the moon one day.
"It's another step along the way," Cheng said in a
telephone interview. "The issue is not just the EVA [spacewalk], but the
ability to actively operate in space."
The Shenzhou 7 flight follows the successful October 2005
launch of China's Shenzhou
6 mission, which took two Chinese astronauts into space for five days. The
nation's first manned spaceflight, the 2003 Shenzhou 5 mission, made China the
third country ever, after Russia and the United States, to independently launch
a person into space.
advertisement
